Biological monitoring of occupational exposure to inorganic arsenic.

Abstract

To avoid the effect of As from sources other than occupation on urinary species of the element, in particular on DMA, it is proposed that urinary As3 + As5 may an indicator for monitoring the exposure to iAs. For concentrations of 10 micrograms/m3 the current environmental limit for iAs, the limit for urinary As3 + As5 was calculated to be around 5 micrograms/l, even if the wide variation of values needs critical evaluation and application of data. The choice of this indicator might be relevant also from a toxicological point of view. Trivalent arsenic is in fact the most active species and its measure in urine could be the best indicator of some critical effects of the element, such as cancer.